By Nantoo Banerjee

By Nantoo Banerjee It is difficult to understand why India is constantly falling prey to China if it is fully aware that China is heavily dumping exports, often “supplying goods at less than raw materials costs.” The question is pertinent in the context of India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s recent outburst as moderator […]

The post India Never Had A Surplus Trade Balance In Last 47 Years first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The growing power tussle between the Centre and opposition-ruled states over the management control of the University Grants Commission-funded universities in states threatens to ruin the sanctity of the country’s higher education system. Chief ministers of a number of opposition states and centrally-appointed governors there are at loggerheads with each other over […]

The post Political Intrusion Puts Indian Higher Education In Crisis first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Last week’s Supreme Court order to temporarily stay the demolition drive of the Railways to clear “encroachment” near Krishna Janmasthan in Mathura could be a matter of concern for both the railways and 135-family dwellings on the government land. Neither the Railways nor the dwellers on the original Railway land are sure […]

The post Land Acquisition Is Posing Problem For India’s Infrastructure Growth first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The RBI’s monetary policy meeting, last week, just days before the expected release of the monthly consumer price index data by the government came as a surprise. Food prices in India have been constantly peaking. Lately, India’s high food inflation has been featured in the global media, including BBC. However, they seemed […]

The post RBI May Have Underassessed Inflationary Trend To Retain Bank Rate first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee   China, the world’s largest steelmaker with annual crude steel output of over one billion tonnes, is out to dampen India’s bid to double its production capacity from the present level of 150 million tonnes to 300 mt by 2030 by continuously dumping its ferrous metals on India. China is exporting steel […]

The post Dumped Chinese Steel Puts India’s Steelmakers In Deep Distress first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

  By Nantoo Banerjee   It is good to note that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised upward India’s economic growth projection for 2023 from 5.9 percent to 6.1 percent. The projection is still well below the Reserve Bank of India’s economic growth forecast of 6.5 percent. The revised IMF estimate will help India […]

The post India Yet To Become Preferred FDI Destination Despite Good GDP Growth first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee   It can happen only in India when wholesale prices shoot up and retail prices drop sharply. Or, when consumer prices flare up, wholesale prices are deeply depressed. Ordinarily, they may look somewhat absurd, but are often seen as true by the data provided under India’s government-run price indices such as the […]

The post India’s Price Indices May Not Be All That Reliable first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee India has been put in a peculiar situation by Russian oil exporters as they prefer Yuan payment against the purchase of Russian crude by Indian importers. Of late, the latter are believed to be spending billions of dollars in buying Chinese Yuan to pay for Russian imports. This is despite the India […]

The post India’s Import Of Cheaper Russian Oil Falls Into Chinese Yuan Trap first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Stock exchange is expected to serve as an economic barometer that is indicative of a country’s state of the economy. Key market indices should provide the pulse of the economy. However, the theory is of little practical value in India. Indian stock markets have become punters’ paradise, a big gambling den for […]

The post India’s Stock Markets Have Become Now Punters’ Paradise first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Electronics and defence production are expected to strongly accelerate the country’s economic growth engine in the coming years. Global manufacturers now find India as the most happening place as China used to be in the beginning of the current century. From just two small mobile phone manufacturing factories in less than 10 […]

The post Electronics, Defence Production Will Strongly Push India’s Economic Growth first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The increasing import of cheaper Russian crude oil during the current fiscal may not necessarily lead to an encouraging economic growth for India this year. Cheaper oil imports from Russia are not helping to energise the economy. This is because the lower oil import cost benefits are not being passed on to […]

The post Indian Consumers Are Robbed Of Cheaper Russian Oil Import Benefits first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It may be to the credit of the Indian National Congress and of Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao, who served as the country’s ninth prime minister from 1991 to 1996, for taking the initiative to pass the Constitution Amendment (73rd and 74th) Acts. The 73rd Amendment empowered state governments to take steps that […]

The post India’s Grass-Root Democracy Is Under Threat From State Political Leadership first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Notwithstanding the hype being built around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s forthcoming official state visit to the United States, it would be wrong to expect any major economic benefit to India as a result of the trip. On top of the agenda are the strategic issues which concern both the US and India. […]

The post PM’s US State Visit Is An Admission Of Growing Indo-US Strategic Partnership first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The cat is out of the bag. India is not the only country using imported Russian oil to export processed petro-products. West Asian oil giants, led by Saudi Arabia, are buying millions of barrels of Russian diesel oil, which is banned in Europe, to sell the product to buyers in the European […]

The post More Russian Oil Is Making Backdoor Entry Into NATO Nations Via Saudi Arabia, UAE first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has probably never faced such a situation as it is now to engage in a positive diplomacy with the world’s three warring super powers — the US, China and Russia. India is getting increasingly trapped in the international power tussle following the Russia-Ukraine war. The growing […]

The post India’s Triangular Relationship With Russia, China And The US Is Under Pressure first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The government and the Reserve Bank may disagree, but the way the country’s trade deficits and external debt are rising it may be a matter of time before India goes for another IMF-World Bank bail out. The current indicators on the two counts are hardly comfortable. Take the debt position first. The […]

The post India’s Growing Trade Deficit And Debt Burden Are A Matter Of Concern first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It is unfortunate that manufacturing is losing focus in India while all eyes are on so-called rapid growth of the services sector. Advertising and marketing campaigns have been peaking to impress consumers as well as investors while the manufacturing sector continues to struggle silently for growth. Barring in the areas of defence […]

The post Time Looks Tough For India’s Manufacturing-Led Growth first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It is difficult to understand why the government is in such a tearing hurry to auction the recently discovered large lithium reserves in Jammu & Kashmir’s Reasi district before the end of the current year itself. The secretary to the Union Ministry of Mines, Vivek Bharadwaj, said the ministry had written to […]

The post Militancy Makes Lithium Mining In J&K A Challenging Task first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The constant political exploitation of the reservation policy, framed in 1950, threatens to further divide the country not only on the caste and sub-caste lines, but also on their extension to rope in religions. As the situation stands today, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, the author of the reservation policy, would have been […]

The post The Caste Cum Religion Based Reservation Policy Must End first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee At a time when India is aiming to become an industrial powerhouse and a $5-trillion economy by 2026-27, the country’s nearly 500-million workforce, the second largest after China, lives in deep uncertainty over life after retirement. The minimum pension continues to be Rs.1,000 per month for the last two decades despite pre-election […]

The post Life Is Dreadful For Millions Of India’s Industrial Pensioners first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Pledging inflated stocks to borrow big from India’s public sector banks seems to have become a routine practice in India. Surprisingly, the Reserve Bank (RBI), the banking regulator, and the government, are doing little to control such practices by holding bank management as responsible as those adventurous borrowers. There are reasons to […]

The post Unholy Bank-Borrower Alliance Is Behind Most Big Financial Frauds first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to substantially boost India’s manufacturing industry has impacted little on the country’s growing dependence on merchandise imports and large trade deficits. It is no wonder that the government and its commerce minister say little on the country’s growing annual merchandise imports bill and trade deficit while highlighting […]

The post India’s Merchandise Imports Continue To Grow Big first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The punishment meted out to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by the Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him by a BJP MLA over his “why all thieves have Modi surname” remarks may have been considered by many as disproportionate to his sin of verbally abusing the prime minister […]

The post Punishment To Rahul Gandhi May Have Been Disproportionate To His Offence first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Notwithstanding Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s repeated statements during his recent tour in the UK saying that Indian democracy is under threat, the growing trend of elected political authoritarianism poses a big challenge to the system. The trend is also being witnessed in many other democracies outside the developed world. India would have […]

The post Corrupt, Poorly Educated Ministers Put India’s Democracy In Danger first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The arrest of Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia last month by a federal agency, CBI, for alleged financial corruption connected with the change in the state’s liquor policy, has understandably upset a large section of opposition parties across the country. Last year, Delhi’s health minister Satyendra Jain was arrested by another […]

The post Political Opposition Faces Witch-Hunt From Parties In Power first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The 12-point Chinese proposal to end the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war fails to address a vital issue that led to the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Subtle diplomatic nuances make the proposal look rather weak. It does not even name the belligerent nations. The proposal is somewhat silent on Russia’s key demand […]

The post China’s Peace Proposal To End Ukraine-Russia War May Not Work first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Much of BJP’s chances to return with clear majority to Lok Sabha after next year’s national election may depend on how the party fares in eight state assembly elections during this year.  They offer a big test for BJP. Only two of the eight states — Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh — are […]

The post Return To Lok Sabha With Clear Majority May Not Be Easy For BJP In 2024 Polls first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee With government banks and financial institutions involved in massive funding in the lately stock-crashed Adani group enterprises, legislators from India’s main opposition parties are understandably concerned. Last week, even the Supreme court sought to know from the government and market regulator the steps needed to improve the regulatory and statutory mechanisms to […]

The post Debt-Heavy Adani Group May Take Time To Overcome That Sinking Feeling first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The Russia-Ukraine war will complete a full year on February 23, this year. And, there is no sign of the war coming to an end any time soon. In fact, the armed conflict between the two East European neighbours is becoming deadlier by day. As of January 29, this year, the UN […]

The post West Unlikely To Stop Fuelling Russia-Ukraine War Soon first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The massive boost in infrastructure spending proposed in the 2023-24 budget is expected to be the biggest growth driver of the county’s economy with several sectors such as steel, coal, power, engineering, automobile and banking are expected to do well. The infrastructure spending along with the focus on tourism, urban development covering […]

The post 2023-24 Budget Provides Big Boost For Industry, Tourism first appeared on IPA Newspack.